Mercedes is a teacher
and president of the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR), a union
fighting to defend the rights of Puerto Rican teachers and for accessible,
quality public education for students. The FMPR organized brigades of
teachers and community members to clean up schools after Hurricane Maria and
demand their reopening. The FMPR is a key organizer of the movement
against school closures and is resisting the moves of disaster capitalism to
privatize education and other public institutions and take over Puerto
Rico. Watch
here!

Renee Hatcher

Renee is a human
rights and community development lawyer and Director of the Community
Enterprise and Solidarity Economy Law Clinic at John Marshall Law
School. Her work and research focuses on strategies to build power and create
equitable development practices and healthy neighborhoods in predominantly
Black, low-income communities. She's written on topics related to the
systematic economic violence of Black life, the connection between
gentrification, displacement, and school closings, and Black economic
solidarity in education. She is the national co-chair for the US Human Rights
Network Working Group on Equality and Nondiscrimination, co-chair of the
Association of American Law Schools Clinicians of Color Subcommittee, and
a member of Law for Black Lives. Watch here!

Joan Fadayiro
(moderator)

Joan is a
community organizer. She has participated in and led struggles to improve
public education, resist police violence, contend for grassroots-led political
power, and secure and improve long-term affordable housing. Through her
organizing, Joan recognized that many of the barriers to community
participation stemmed from a lack of access to quality jobs and ownership of their
own labor. People have material needs that current movements cannot continue to
ignore if they seek to grow. Thus, Joan co-founded the Cooperation for
Liberation Study & Working Group to understand and build worker
cooperatives as a tool for economic independence and self-determination in
Black communities.

1. Continuing the
Conversation with Mercedes Martínez (Keynote Speaker). This workshop
will continue the conversation with Mercedes. It will specifically address how
all of us in Chicago and the US can support the struggles of the Puerto Rican
people-to resist disaster capitalism and to reclaim and reimagine a Puerto Rico
for the people.

2. Youth Are More
Powerful Than Ever (Adult supported- Gigi & Aidé, Teachers for
Social Justice; YOUTH LED, Xóchitl). Youth are powerful and will organize
together as they voice their struggles in their schools, communities, and
world. Adults will support them as they discuss an action they would like to
take as they continue to work together in the future.

3. Students Not
Suspects: Anti-Muslim Surveillance in Schools (American Friends
Service Committee; Brianna Hanny, Zareen Kamal, Nicole Nguyen, Mary Zerkel).
Fear of terrorism is used to justify the racial and religious profiling, and
the Department of Homeland Security relies upon the cooperation of teachers and
school social workers to implement surveillance programs in schools that
criminalize Muslim and other marginalized youth. We will help participants to
recognize these programs, see connections with other forms of surveillance like
the gang database, and come up with concrete strategies to resist.

4. $95 Mil for
Communities! (#NoCopAcademy). It's been a year since #NoCopAcademy hit
Chicago, demanding money for schools and communities not more policing. Attend
this workshop to hear from youth leaders active with the campaign about lessons
learned, where we're at now, and how you can get involved.

5. Black and Brown
Parents United for Education Equity (Irene Robinson & Jitu
Brown, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization & Journey for Justice
Alliance; Carmen Cabrales, Family Focus Hermosa Community). This past year,
parent/family leaders from various Chicago neighborhoods have met to share stories
about struggles for equity in their children's schools/communities. Black and
Brown parents showcased their efforts, successes, and support for each other's
work across communities. This workshop will have several parent leaders whose
lives have been transformed by their struggles. Parents, families, and
supporters will get to hear stories and discuss lessons learned and future
plans in the movement for education equity.

6. Chicago Childcare
Collective Volunteer and Values Training (Chicago Childcare Collective
[ChiChiCo]). Radical Childcare Volunteer Training- join Chicago Childcare
Collective organizers for an introduction to their collective's model for
liberatory play, anti-adultism, and childcare activism. Participants will
review ChiChiCo's values and consider the work that it takes to enact these
values while providing childcare in organizing spaces. Participants will also
have the opportunity to observe ChiChiCo members working in the childcare space
after the workshop and to join the collective as volunteers.

7. Building Critical
Thinking Through Classroom Conversations With Documentary Film (Bill
Siegel, Projecto Willis LLC). Teachers will engage in an interactive session
using The Vietnam War documentary series as a model for integrating non-fiction
media into classroom discussion. Teachers will experience how the kinds of
questions they ask, greatly impact the challenge they give to students to
authentically express their ideas and opinions and build respect and
consideration for alternative points of view. Teachers will come away with
specific strategies to facilitate rigorous, open-ended, text-based discussions
of non-fiction media.

8. Justice-Centered Teaching in Middle School (Jessica
Suárez Nieto & Alejandra Frausto, Teachers for Social Justice). In this
workshop participants will be a part of an interdisciplinary mini-lesson that
will model how to engage middle schoolers in justice-centered learning.
Participants will get an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with the
presenters about how to create curriculum in math, science, history and
language arts while also developing strong classroom communities. Presenters
will also reflect on what led them to teach in this way and the journey of
continuing to teach this way.

SESSION TWO 2:15 - 3:30

9. What Is
Gentrification? (Obama Community Benefits Agreement
Coalition).Displacement and gentrification are terms that have become
associated with development in low-income and working communities.
Unfortunately, however, there is a lot of confusion regarding what these terms
mean, and whether development is possible without displacement. This workshop
seeks to unpack these issues, and place them in the context of a local fight
for a community benefits agreement as a means to preserve community in the
midst of development.

10. Black Muslims in
U.S. History: An Introductory Activity (Alison Kysia, Teaching
for Change). In this interactive lesson, each participant receives a ½ sheet
biography of a Black Muslim who lived in the U.S. between 1600-present.
Participants mix and mingle for 25 minutes, introducing themselves as their
Black Muslim character. Afterwards, small group discussion highlights the
important themes emphasized during the activity. This is the first of a
seven-lesson curriculum called "Islamophobia" A people's history
teaching guide" at Teaching for Change.

11. Empowering
Yourself with Data (Sarah Rothschild, Chicago Teachers Union).
This workshop will teach participants how to find important public data about
the Chicago Public Schools in order to advocate for more resources for their
schools. I will show everyone where some of the really important data is
located within the CPS website and provide a brief Excel tutorial to help
participants analyze and summarize the data. This is a hands-on workshop and it
is recommended, though not essential, that people bring their own
laptops.

12. Struggling Against
White Supremacy as a White Educator (Maura Nugent, Kayce Bayer, Martin
Carver, Jonah Bondurant, Liz McCabe; Teachers for Social Justice). This session
is designed for white educators interested in confronting the effects of their
whiteness in the classroom and working with other white educators to help
further anti-racist initiatives in our schools and communities in coalition
with people of color. We welcome anyone who wants to think through ways to
challenge the silence around race, power, and white supremacy in the classroom
and in our schools.

13. #PoliceFreeSchools (Olivia
Abrecht, Andrea Ortiz, and youth leaders from Brighton Park Neighborhood
Council). 1.6 million students in the U.S. attend a school with no counselors,
but with police. In the last three years, there were over 30 assaults by police
officers in schools. The U.S. DOJ report on CPD documented abuse by police
officers in CPS. Chicago's Inspector General found that police operate without
accountability or oversight in schools. In this workshop, we reimagine school
cultures without punitive discipline and explore dismantling school
policing.

14. Title IX Rights:
Supporting and Protecting Young People (Darien R. Wendell and
Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health youth facilitators). Did you know that
Title IX rights apply to high schoolers? Join high school student facilitators
and the Education Specialist of the ICAH to learn about protections for
students who are pregnant, parenting, trans, gender nonconforming, and/or
survivors of sexual violence. Practice responding to Title IX violations
through participatory scenarios and walk through Office of Civil Rights and CPS
reporting processes to help ensure the success of ALL students.

15. The Puerto Rico
Solidarity Brigades: Bridging our Communities for Social Change (UIC-College
of Education, CTU-Latinx Caucus, Chicago Boricua Resistance). Six months
after hurricane María twenty students, teachers, and community activists went
to Puerto Rico to engage in solidarity work with mutual support centers,
teacher unions, and organized communities. This is a report back on the
solidarity work done and in process as part of a broader vision connecting
movements for social justice across nations. Brigadistas and coordinators will
speak to their experiences and open up a space for imagining next steps in
broadening solidarity.

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Are you a teacher who would like to present your curriculum at the Teachers for Social Justice Curriculum Fair? If you’re feeling a bit nervous or hesitant to do so, please watch this video! And then submit a proposal here!